The pouring rain and a Great Britain rider in the leading group looking to win the first gold of the Games for her nation in the women’s road race.

But, for Wales, that is where the similarities sadly ended.

For Nicole Cooke four years ago, read Lizzie Armitstead in 2012.

And replace glorious gold for the Welsh wonder achieved with the Great Wall of China backdrop behind, with a superb silver for the young Englishwoman on The Mall behind Holland’s Marianne Vos.

Armitstead was beaten to victory at the end of a pulsating 140km race, which featured two climbs of Surrey’s Box Hill, in the final sprint.

There was no disgrace in losing to the outstanding Vos who, like Cooke four years earlier, had fulfilled her destiny by winning the Olympic crown.

After all, the 23-year-old from Otley had produced a brilliant race to put Team GB on the medal table at last.

Not that this was just an individual effort as the British quartet silenced the doubters who questioned whether the previously divided squad could work together.

The fears emerged after the public spat that emerged between Cooke and Armitstead following last year’s world championships in Copenhagen, when the Wick wonder was accused of riding for herself.

The duo had consistently insisted those issues had been resolved but they needed to back up their words with actions yesterday to stop the whispers of disharmony.

The pair managed that as they achieved something their more high-profile male counterparts could not 24 hours earlier.

It was the men’s dream team of Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Ian Stannard and David Millar were meant to guide Britain to victory, but it was the supposedly fractured women’s squad who delivered that precious first medal.

The British men stuck to a plan with sprint specialist Mark Cavendish being snuffed out by the opposition in a massive anti-climax.

But the women’s more fluid aggressive approach in heavy showers made for a far more entertaining race with Armitstead almost pulling off that sensational victory.

And despite all the questions whether she might ride for herself, Cooke put to bed the suggestion that she is not a team player.

Cooke has often in the past been the beneficiary of teams riding for her because she has been the best. Pure and simple.

The Welsh star has been a pioneer for road racing in the land, single-handedly flying the flag for a decade and achieving every major accolade, including winning World and Olympic titles in the same year within six weeks.

But with the nuances of road racing demanding a strong team ethic and the increased standard of women’s racing on these shores, there was going to be a time when the 29-year-old handed over the baton to the next generation.

And that appeared to happen on the streets of London yesterday.

Because, despite suggestions she could retain her title with no designated team leader nominated publicly beforehand, this was never destined to be her day.

Cooke never threatened and was hardly seen at the head of the peloton, instead settling to play a supporting role to her younger team-mate.

It was a different feeling to four years ago when she was shrieking in delight after achieving her dream.

Yesterday there was more gentle contentment knowing she had played a small role in helping Armitstead onto the podium.

“You have to race as a team and Lizzie took her chance and got her medal,” reflected Cooke later.

“We knew Lizzie was in form, we knew I was in form, we knew Emma was going really well.

“We didn’t have the all-out sprinter so we wanted to get someone in the break and that’s what we did.

“If I had my chance I would have gone for a medal, it is just the way road racing is.

“That was one of the beautiful things about bike racing because you don’t know how things are going to pan out and you have to role the dice.

“You need to have different strategies and you can’t plan for everything.

“But having the strength in numbers and having that mentality, you know one of those people will get that result.

“And over the years as you race together with world championships and Olympic Games, everyone will get their chance. “This was Lizzie’s.”

Emma Pooley, who had helped Cooke to gold four years ago, put in another strong performance, marking escapes and keeping the tempo high.

Lucy Martin, the fourth member of the group, also played an integral role from the start before fading away.

Cooke explained how the race panned out for her and the team.

“The first part of the race was uneventful so all we had to do was stay present,” she said.

“When we got to Box Hill we needed to be at the front and we were.

“Emma started attacking to see if the moves were going and when we came off the circuit Lizzie was in that move.

“Emma and I were then blocking and waiting and if it came to block it would have been over to us.

“But we knew with about 10k to go it was not likely to come back.

“We were then thinking which medal it was going to be. It was almost the perfect race, but not quite.”

Armitstead was part of the crucial four-rider break, 45kms from the finish, initiated by the Russian Oleg Zabelinskaya, with Vos and Shelley Olds also following.

The American Olds punctured to fall back to the main pack and Germany, the US and others attempted to pull the trio back. But they were able to hold off the charging peloton.

As the remaining trio decisively forged ahead, you wondered whether Cooke, with the lure of trying to defend her Olympic title and the knowledge this could be her last Games, might do.

Was she tempted to charge off and try and catch them rather than marking the peloton and helping Armitstead?

But Cooke insisted that scenario never entered her head.

“It would have been impossible to go away by yourself on a course like this and that never came through my mind,” she explained.

“It was more a case of if an opportunity comes I was going to go for it in the main part of the race.

“Once the break happened, if they came back then it would be over to me.

“But they didn’t and Lizzie stayed strong.”

So all the tension between her and Cooke was water under the bridge. And there was a lot of water on the course.

Just as the riders lined up for the start on The Mall the heavens opened.

“The rain was tough and it reminded me of Beijing,” she said. “The conditions were hard and there were about five or six crashes.

“On the climb it was OK, but over the top they really went fast. That was when it was strung out and that was actually very hard, with wet corners and everything.”